With an app that provides a centralized place for children and stakeholders alike, FosterPower offers a unique pathway for the future of child advocacy
In the world of child advocacy, few tools have the transformative potential to empower foster youth as much as FosterPower. Founded by Taylor Sartor, a Tampa-based attorney with deep experience in educating and representing children in foster care, the FosterPower app provides a centralized place for children and stakeholders alike, including judges and guardians, to access the information they need to thrive.
With more than 20,000 children in Florida’s foster care system at any given time, Sartor is setting a precedent for how technology can be harnessed to inform, guide, and inspire youth towards a better future.
From advocacy to action
Sartor’s journey began with a Guardian ad Litem program during college, in which she volunteered to advocate for children in foster care. Her passion deepened during her time as an AmeriCorps member, mentoring students in a pilot program. While at AmeriCorps, Sartor represented one of her students, improving his life while solidifying her interest in attending law school to represent even more youth with urgent legal needs.
Sartor’s dedication carried through to law school, where she earned an Equal Justice Works Fellowship at the Children’s Law Center. One specific challenge continued to stand out: the absence of a centralized resource in Florida to help foster youth understand their rights and access critical services. Inspired by initiatives in other states, Sartor partnered with law students to create a know-your-rights guide, which she used in her legal practice. The project gained even greater traction after a grant from the Legal Services Corporation allowed the guide to be digitized.
FosterPower was developed with a clear vision: to inform foster youth about their benefits, protections, and legal rights. “We don’t cater to any other audience than the youth — FosterPower is made for them,” Sartor explains. “However, the content is so simplified and cites to the law at the bottom of each section that it is truly a useful resource for anyone in child welfare. We do have case managers, attorneys, and judges that use the app, but our focus audience has been and always will be youth in foster care.”
To build the app, Sartor took a hands-on and sensitive approach by working directly with foster youth. “These youth have experienced significant trauma and talking about their experiences can be triggering, so I wanted to make sure that it was approached in a youth-centered, trauma-informed manner,” she says. “I did not want to outsource this task to a vendor that did not have the experience working with this vulnerable population.”
“We don’t cater to any other audience than the youth — FosterPower is made for them. “However, the content is so simplified and cites to the law at the bottom of each section that it is truly a useful resource for anyone in child welfare.”
Sartor notes that the biggest factor was really just listening to the youth and creating an app that is based on their feedback and what they wanted to see when they pulled up FosterPower. She also says they prioritized compensating foster youth for their time, ensuring that they were truly valued and respected as a part of the process.
The result is an app that’s as practical as it is accessible. Available on both Android and iPhone — a must-have to Sartor — FosterPower was designed to function offline, ensuring that users can access critical information anytime, anywhere. Content is reviewed on an annual basis with local experts, ensuring that information is as up to date as possible.
A vision for the future
Since its launch, thanks to word of mouth, local partnerships, and social media posts, FosterPower has achieved impressive milestones. The app has been downloaded more than 4,000 times, and its website has gathered more than 10,000 views. The app’s educational videos have reached more than 100,000 viewers — proof of the demand for foster care-related education in Florida in beyond.
To further its reach, Sartor and her team conduct in-person presentations and CLE sessions. Looking to the future, Sartor says they’ll be hiring a community marketer and trainer to build relationships with case managers and ensure wider adoption of the app. Recent updates include an immigration section available in Spanish and Creole, as well as a forthcoming human-trafficking module, reflecting the diverse needs of Florida’s foster youth and FosterPower’s commitment to addressing them.
Sartor’s current focus is on ensuring all foster youth across the state are empowered with the information they need to succeed. “We continue to work on getting it out across the state so that all youth know about it,” she explains, adding, however, that her ambitions for the app extend beyond Florida. With the help of funders and other local experts, she says she envisions expanding FosterPower to other states, encouraging local organizations to adopt and adapt the platform for their own unique needs.
For those inspired by Sartor’s work, her advice is clear: Listen to the population you aim to serve, involve them in the design process, and compensate them fairly. She stresses that building tech solutions for vulnerable populations requires deep empathy, adaptation, and a commitment to sustainability.
FosterPower is a unique opportunity to change lives for some of the country’s most vulnerable — foster youth — and the reception of their app is a testament to their its thoughtful design and development process, which stands as a testament to the power of user-centered design and compassionate innovation. With every download, FosterPower moves closer to ensuring that no child in foster care is left without the resources they need to succeed and thrive.
You can find out more about how legal technology is helping further the cause of justice here.
